hi ive not posted for ages, but really need some advice

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Im a mummy to a boy who is 6 with aspergers, we are almost certain he has adhd also. He is, at present, not taking medication. He cannot have it until he is 6 where I live and his ped will not diagnose him til 6.
We had decided not to medicate but his behaviour is so bad he bites teachers, headbuts etc etc and he is so hyper his body literally twitches so we are going to see if we can get medication for him when he is 6 next month which im so worried about. Is there anyone here with aspergers and adhd and could you cope without medication? as im so uncertain what to do for him. Also is it normal for them to go backwards with behaviour as we thought he was coming along so well and then, bang in 2 weeks he has gone back so far, they have a behaviour chart on the wall at school and he has been getting middle to near top and now hes getting bottom all the time, i take him to school and he is hitting children with his bag. Sorry to ramble and sorry if ive posted in the wrong place i just find it very reassuring speaking to someone who knows where he is coming from. thanks for anyones help.

i cant help but i wanna wish u luck...im also hyper and curently on Ritalin it does help me to calm down but then again..every person has unique response to meds ..i can cope whitout meds if u can stand me

What is his diet like?

(i am an ADDer with Aspergers symptoms...I did not take medication till I was an adult...also, although I might have acted out as a child, I never acted out on other students or teachers..)

Somewhere floating around, I have a book called the ADHD diet...

ADD meds are powerful stuff for children to take...even for adults, for that matter....

Have you tried natural remedies? Even something as simple as chamomile might help take the edge off his behavior.

There are natural supplements for ADD that are marketed towards children...

My mom used caffine to calm me down. You might want to try green tea, which contains l-theanine, which promotes a sense of calmness and well-being...

I did out of desperation buy some stuff called synaptol which is from the states but the list of ingredients was endless - I might try the green tea. Its difficult with his diet, he is so specific, if a spec of green touches his mash he will leave the entire dinner - he is so fussy with food. Im very interested in natural but wary of strong natural herbs affecting his kidneys etc but if you have any ideas other than green tea id be so grateful - in the meantime i will look into that

some of the biting & uncontrollable behaviors could be due to something triggering him....could also be due to lack of routine....hard to say without more details.........aggression is often the result of uncontrolled anxiety &/or frustration over misunderstandings. you'd really have to look at when & where he's having issues to come up with a solution.

I would check for triggers, like allergens (it's springtime!) and change at school (schedule, staff, classmates). My son recently started hitting after going more than a year "hurt-free". He has grass allergies, and likely some other ones as well. His "autistic traits" really kick in every Spring and mellow out in summer.

i would look into what is going on .... see if anything is triggering the attacks....maybe even just something minor that has changed in the class.....

the allergy thing is a good idea... have him tested for allergies.... there are studies out there about autistics with allergies, where the allergies up the emergence of their autistic traits.... i would suggest at least trying that before putting him on ADD meds .... they change children's entire demeanor, and not in a good way...

Hi, I'm adult diagnosed with Aspergers and ADD. I've never been medicated. I think the medications do more long term harm than good. I really don't understand why violent behavior is labeled as Aspergers as its not on the list of symptoms. I think you need to have a neuropsychologist evaluate your son as it sounds to me he has some other behavior disorders going on. If you really insist on medicating him you at least need to know what truly is going on with him. I'm not a doctor of course, but anytime I hear of violent behaviors that sounds to me more like rapid cycling Bi-polar, or Intermittent Explosive Disorder or perhaps some other dissociative disorder. It can also be a response to abuse from someone the child is around.

Meanwhile I would look at diet, routine and family life as things that trigger his behavior.

Ticker~ while aggression my not be listed as on e of the symptoms of Aspergers, it is a common occurence in those with
Aspergers and Autism. I work with teens that are primarily dxed AS and Aut....unprovoked aggression doesn't generally occur, but they can definitely become aggressive when feeling ill, when provoked, and when overly anxious....

There is something at school which we know has affected his behaviour but his behaviour had already started to go downhill before it happened, this happens frequently - he will be mellow for ages and then its like he cannot control his body, he is jumpring, fidgeting, running, twitching, throwing his sister on the floor etc, the list goes on. His aggression is mostly when he is told to do something or put something away and he doesnt want to do it, even though they use timers with him. He throws chairs at his one to one and will bite or kick her sometimes. As far as medication goes, im petrified of giving it to him but he has no friends - is very clever but cannot focus or sit still and also has to be the class clown, he moons, screeches, wacks the other kids - we just dont know what to do for the best for him and im desperate.

By the way, thanks for mentioning a neuropsychologist - id never even heard of one before! I will look into this today, anything is worth trying.

some of that could be a build up of anxiety. my son used to be prone to fits like that~turns out that much of it was due to his uncontrolled anxiety levels. once we got him on the right med, his anxiety levels became manageable. we were then able to reason with him and work on self-management skills (ie; helping him to recognize what makes him anxious. helping him to know what to do when he starts becoming anxious)......before meds, we couldn't get him to sit and reason with anyone. not when he was calm, and certainly not when he was in the midst of a fit.

While I agree with all the "non-medical" approaches, and have tried/use them all, I believe that some children need meds.
My son is diagnosed HFA and ADHD.
Much of your son's behaviour could be my son. YES structure, timers and visualisation help tremendously. But they couldn't remove the impulsive part of the ADHD - the chair throwing, snatching, biting, hitting part.
We started my son on ritalin last year, and I'm sorry we didn't do it sooner. Really. I was pertrified before we tried it out. But it was miraculous! All the impulsive behaviour stopped. My son was given 1/4second to STOP himself from throwing, biting, knockng a chair over - almost always pure impulse. Now he can react in a much better way. As a result he isn't in trouble all the time, he is happier with a better self esteem, and other kids aren't afraid of him.
As parents, it means that we aren't at his heels the whole time as he runs from one thing to the next, to stop him suddenly doing something "naughty".
Another effect I didn't expect is that when the ADHD dissapeared, the autism became more visable. He uses a lot of time doing talking about his special interests. It took a little getting used to.
The last thing I have to say is that IMO ritalin is a relatively "easy/safe" drug to try: you very quickly know whether it's working or not (10 minutes). You don't have to wait months to see whether there is an effect or not, like you do with some other drugs. It also is completely out of the system after 4 hours. So it's easy to "try out" and if it doesn't work, then you're that much wizer.
Good luck with the little guy

Thank you, you dont know how relieved i am to read this. I think medication is our only option to allow him to have as normal life as possible without people avoiding him all the time at all costs! Im glad medication worked for your son and that he is reacting well to it. Good luck to you to.

I agree you should try to figure out what's triggering such frustration with him, but here is my two cents' worth. We didn't want to medicate, either, but reached a point where we'd tried everything else we felt we could reasonably do and, in the end, decided to just give the medication a "trial run" and see how he responded to it, if at all. Just a month or two, in the summer, before school started back up so we could see how he was doing BEFORE he had to deal with all that chaos again. And honestly, it's helped us. I'm only speaking of OUR situation, and no one else's, and I'm not advocating you run out and medicate your child. But for ME, I finally felt that it wasn't fair to refuse categorically to even let him TRY the meds just because I didn't want to be "one of those lazy parents who drugs their children." If it might help him, I felt it was selfish and wrong of me to deny him that chance. So we tried them. And I have to say, it truly has helped him, somewhat. He's definitely still HIM, still has loads of personality, definitely not a "zombie" or sluggish. He has tolerated the medication very well and has been taking it for going on three years now. We recently increased the dosage for one of the two meds he takes, and that's helped, too. We're still doing lots of other things for him, at home and with his school, and we hope to get him into behavioral and speech therapy as soon as possible. If he'd had a "bad reaction" to the meds, we would've taken him off them immediately. But they've helped, and even he sees that - he may fight us tooth and nail over teeth brushing and not wanting to tie his shoes, or wear the same outfit for a week - but he quite willingly takes his meds and will remind us if we've momentarily forgotten to dispense them at a certain time. Without the meds, his behaviors are much more "autistic-looking," and he is largely oblivious to the world around him and doesn't respond much to other people, in fact seems not to notice them or hear them.

I know lots of people here will likely tell you not ever to medicate, ever. I personally feel that position is a bit extreme, and each child is different. Your child may or may not respond well to this or that medication - you might have to try more than one before you find a good fit. We were very lucky not to have had to experiment with several drugs before finding one that worked for us. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide.

Your doctor is refusing to address your childs problem.
Vote with your feet.

Find a doctor that knows something about aspies
and go from there